Company news in brief

Capitec rating not hurt by Viceroy

Capitec said its credit rating by S&P Global Ratings had not been affected by a report from Viceroy Research accusing the South African lender of overstating its income and assets.

S&P has rated Capitec BB/B with a stable outlook, which falls within the speculative range.

The US firm Viceroy published a report on Tuesday which said Capitec was a "loan shark with massively understated defaults masquerading as a community microfinance provider", triggering a brief slump of 25% in its shares.

Capitec has dismissed the allegations calling the report "flawed with inaccurate statements". – Nampa/Reuters

Fujifilm to take over Xerox

Japan's Fujifilm Holdings is set to take over Xerox Corp in a US$6.1 billion deal, combining the US company into their existing joint venture to gain scale and cut costs amid declining demand for office printing.

Xerox has been under pressure to find new sources of growth as it struggles to reinvent its legacy business amid waning demand for office printing. Fujifilm is also trying to streamline its copier business with a larger focus on document solutions services.

Consolidation of R&D, procurement and other operations would enable Fuji Xerox to deliver at least US$1.7 billion in total cost savings by 2022, the two companies said.

The combined company will keep the Fuji Xerox name and become a subsidiary of Fujifilm, with dual headquarters in the United States and Japan, and listed in New York. – Nampa/Reuters

Nokia’s profit buoyed by patent

Nokia reported better-than-expected quarterly profits as a one-off patent payment from China's biggest smartphone maker Huawei offset weak global sales of its mainstay network equipment.

Nokia's fourth-quarter group earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased 7% from a year ago to 1.0 billion euros (US$1.2 billion).

Chief executive Rajeev Suri cautioned that its worldwide network sales were expected to remain weak, but a potential rebound of spending by operators in the Americas could help.

He said he expected market conditions to improve markedly in 2019 and 2020 due to rollouts of next-generation 5G networks. – Nampa/Reuters

Microsoft's cloud business grows

Microsoft Corp beat Wall Street's profit forecast on Wednesday, helped by growth in its cloud computing business, but took a US$13.8 billion one-time charge due to the new US tax law.

The quarter was the 10th in a row of more than 90% revenue growth for its flagship Azure cloud computing service, which directly competes with Amazon.com Inc's Amazon Web Services.

Revenue from what Microsoft calls its intelligent cloud segment rose 15.3% to US$7.8 billion in the company's fiscal second quarter, including 98 percent growth for Azure.

Microsoft's tax charge lead to a net loss of US$6.30 billion, or 82 UScents per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to a profit of US$6.27 billion, or 80 US cents per share, a year earlier. – Nampa/Reuters

Facebook forecasts rising ad sales

Facebook Inc offered reassurances to investors on Wednesday that its digital ad business would remain highly profitable, despite a dip in usage on the social media network and an overhaul of its flagship News Feed.

The company said in an earnings report that quarterly revenue jumped 47% from a year earlier, and executives said on a conference call that they saw more chances to make money even if people spend less time on Facebook.

At the end of last year time spent by users had fallen by about 50 million hours a day.

Total revenue, though, showed little impact, rising to US$12.97 billion and beating analysts' estimate of US$12.55 billion. – Nampa/Reuters